José María López fights hard for home win at Termas de Río Hondo

José María López won his home race at Termas de Río Hondo from pole position after a tough battle with early race leader Norbert Michelisz. The Citroën driver finished ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel, with Rob Huff completing the podium for Honda.

At the start, Norbert Michelisz had a brilliant launch in the Honda Civic and got past López, while Yvan Muller overtook Tom Coronel for third. Huff was now fifth ahead of team-mate Tiago Monteiro and Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani, while Esteban Guerrieri paid the price of a clutch issue and had a slow start from fifth, slipping down to eighth position.

López continued to attack Norbert Michelisz as Muller followed closely behind. The Argentinian tried to pass under braking after the back straight several times, and initially had pressure from his team-mate, the two even briefly switching positions twice. However, López was soon told on the radio by the team not to worry about Muller, and therefore attacked for the lead.

The Hungarian put on a very good defensive drive until he was passed by both López and Muller at the chicane on lap seven. The Honda driver had tried to defend from both, but this played in the Argentinian’s favour and he took the lead.

Michelisz had to cut the chicane and, at the following corner, both he and Muller flew into the gravel as they had light contact. The Honda driver slipped down to eighth, while Muller managed to only lose three places and rejoined in fifth.

After that nothing changed in the top positions, with Coronel now following López from a safe distance with the two Hondas of Huff and Monteiro behind him.

López won the race ahead of Tom Coronel, who also won the independents’ classification, with Huff completing the podium. Monteiro lost 13 points to championship leader López as he finished fourth ahead, with Muller crossing the line fifth.

Esteban Guerrieri finished in sixth in the partly-repaired Campos Racing Chevrolet, with Mehdi Bennani finishing seventh in the privateer Citroën ahead of early race leader Norbert Michelisz. Opening race winner Tom Chilton finished ninth with Campos’ John Filippi completing the top ten for the second race in succession.

López’s championship lead is now extended to 117 points over Tiago Monteiro, with Yvan Muller now moving up to third in the drivers’ standings, just seven points behind Monteiro heading to the next round of the championship at Motegi in Japan on September 4th.